


Feeling Lucky

by TinCanTelephone



Series: From Tumblr, With <3 [9]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Bars and Pubs, F/M, Mild Drunkenness, Pool & Billiards, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 19:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14961152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/TinCanTelephone
Summary: After a bad night working on his graduate research project, Cassian goes to the local bar to drown his sorrows and maybe play a game of pool. Except the people at the pool table won't. Effing. Leave.Kay comes along to chaperone and wingman. It goes about as well as you'd expect…





	Feeling Lucky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moonprincess92](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonprincess92/gifts).



> For @moonprincess92nz's prompt on tumblr: "I dunno? Just set it on fire, I guess."
> 
> Haha for once I used the prompt line in the first scene! Although somehow this still ended up pretty long for a tumblr fic…

Cassian liked to think he was a relatively persistent person. 

Screw that– he was an  _incredibly_  persistent person but even he had his limits. And ten hours of coding without anything useful to show for it was about his limit. Somewhere between the fifth and sixth error message his eyes began to cross, and at the seventh his head thumped onto his desk. After a few seconds of contemplating the true worth of his existence, he stood up so fast his chair fell over backwards. 

Kay barely raised an eyebrow, slumped on the sofa and eyes still glued to his own computer.

“That’s it. I’m done,” Cassian said, shrugging on his coat and shoes. “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs getting shitfaced.”  _Downstairs_  meant the bar on the ground floor of their building.

At that, Kay sighed and stood up as well. “If you must.”

Cassian frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you. It is irresponsible to become intoxicated without a sober associate present.”

Cassian paused, wondered briefly whether it would be worth arguing, then gave up and reached for his keys. “Fine.”

“Good.” Kay glanced at Cassian’s computer, still open with lines of apparently shitty code and an error message on the screen. “What do you plan to do about that?”

“I don’t know,” Cassian said as he opened the door. “Set it on fire, I guess.”

 

Of course, Cassian knew it would be a poor course of action to destroy two years’ worth of his graduate research, but at this point it was tempting. So tonight he resolved to get too drunk consider it again when he got home. 

He and Kay slid into their usual booth and right away Cassian ordered two shots of tequila. Kay gave him his most judgmental look and ordered club soda. 

“At this rate, you will regret your decision-making in the morning,” Kay said as Cassian threw the first one back. 

“Don’t care.” Cassian breathed through the burn in his throat and stomach and surveyed the bar, looking for something interesting to do. “I’m done with life tonight.” Unfortunately, both the pool table and dart board were occupied. 

“So it would seem.” Kay huffed. “As long as you refrain from vomiting on the carpet.” 

“I’ll do my best.” Cassian tipped back the next shot. When their server came around again, he ordered a basket of fries and another drink. Kay started ranting about something going on at work and he half listened as he people-watched. He felt the liquor seep into his bloodstream and let the pleasant, loose feeling wash over him.

Overall, it had the intended effect of making him forget about his coding woes and anxiety over the next meeting with his advisor. He had a good view of the entire bar from where he was sitting and he kept his eyes moving, taking in the crowd tonight. It was kind of quiet for a weekend, but there were people playing at the pool table and he tried to keep one eye on it, prepared to get up the next time it was free. Maybe he’d even win this time. He was feeling lucky tonight.

But the party currently surrounding the green felt table seemed to be playing a very slow game. They had just started when Cassian arrived, and a decent number of balls were still on the table. It seemed to him this was not due to a lack of skill but rather the fact that they paused to argue between each turn. 

The loser and apparent instigator of most arguments was a tall-ish man with a permanent cocky grin. He and a man with a dark ponytail were playing two women– one dressed entirely too formally for a bar and another who looked a bit too ready to leap across the table and smack one or both of the men with her pool cue. 

After forty-five minutes, Cassian was quite ready for them to be finished and gave up on watching anything but their progress. Almost by accident, he found himself focusing on the angry woman. She was very good, sinking a ball nearly every time she took a shot, and he thought she moved very gracefully. Unlike her teammate, wearing a pressed skirt and heels, she was wearing muddy combat boots and a vest. Rather like the smug-looking man, he realized.

He frowned. He kind of hoped that wasn’t her boyfriend. The guy looked like kind of a jerk. 

“What are you looking at?” Kay turned around and snorted. “They do not appear anywhere close to finished.”

“What do you think about the girl in the vest?” Cassian said before he could think about it. He glanced down and cursed. After the tequila shots he’d moved on to mixed drinks, but he couldn’t remember if this was his third or fourth. Probably fourth. 

Kay wrinkled his nose? “Could you be more specific?”

“Do you think she’s with that guy?” Cassian tried to gesture to Cocky Grin. Might as well take advantage of some of Kay’s cold reading skills. 

“Unlikely,” Kay said after a few moments. “They do not make extended or meaningful eye contact, nor do they stand closer than necessary.”

“Oh.” Cassian took another sip of his drink to hide his reaction.

Kay saw it anyway and fixed him with a look of deep disapproval. “No.”

“What?” Cassian feigned confusion. 

“I would not recommend you approach that woman. Her posture and manner of dress indicate she is likely to be fractious and emotionally volatile.”

Cassian smirked. “Is that your way of saying she looks like trouble?”

Kay glowered. “Too much trouble. I would again suggest that you do not pursue her.”

Cassian shrugged. “Fine.”  _Pursue_  sounded like a strong word. He just wanted to talk to her, that’s all. “Do you want more fries? I kind of want more fries.” He looked at the basket between them, a little less than half full. “Or… more ketchup or something.” He got up and walked over to the bar, where Vest Girl was waiting for another drink. 

They made eye contact as he approached. 

She gave a polite smile and a short nod, then turned back to the bar. 

Too buzzed to feel too self-conscious, Cassian leaned against the nearest stool and held out his hand. “Cassian.”

She blinked in surprise, and he was briefly afraid he'd fucked it up already. But then she took his hand and shook it. “Jyn.”

She had a firm handshake. And palms calloused at the base of her fingers but soft everywhere else. Not that he noticed. “How’s the game?” He waved at the pool table.

She grimaced. “Long. Leia and Han keep getting into it between turns. Sorry if you’re waiting– we can just stop now if you want.”

“No, it’s okay.” 

Her drink arrived but she didn’t leave. She just held it, staring at him. 

He felt his face begin to flush and he suddenly felt incredibly awkward leaning against the stool. “I– um.” He straightened. “I’ll see you around.”

She gave him an odd look. “Okay.”

He turned as walked as quickly as he could in a straight line back to his and Kay’s table. It wasn’t until he sat down that he realized he’d forgotten the ketchup. 

“That was a disaster,” Kay said. 

Cassian rested his head in his arms. “I know. I ruined it. I ruined it before it even began.”

Kay looked unimpressed. “If I believed in God, I believe this is where I would take His name in vain. 

“Shut up,” Cassian said. His fifth drink hitting him on a mostly empty stomach, the room was starting to sway unpleasantly. 

“If you are genuinely interested in this woman, you should try again.” Kay raised a scornful eyebrow. “Although perhaps in an hour and after consuming a glass of water.”

Slowly, Cassian lifted his head and picked at the fries again. “Okay,” he said. “Maybe you’re right."

 

* * *

 

Fifty minutes later, Cassian was halfway through his second glass of water and feeling much steadier, but still insanely nervous as Jyn’s group of friends finally wrapped up their game and began gathering their things to leave. 

During that time, he hadn’t been able to  _quite_  stop staring at her. (When he was pretty sure she wasn’t looking.) This hadn’t helped, as his stupid, drunk brain had decided that she had a rather (no,  _very_ ) nice ass and that her hair was really pretty, especially when she leaned over and it fell past her shoulders. 

He’d said he’d try again, but as they began to move towards the exit he was more and more sure he’d just chicken out. She was too pretty, too cool, too… a lot of things for him. 

“Well?” Kay said as the man with the ponytail fiddled for his keys. 

Cassian shrugged and slumped over the table. “Forget about it, Kay. It’s not worth it.”

“Oh, for the love of Alan Turing.” Kay groaned and stood up. “Jyn!”

Jyn jumped and turned around. Her eyes widened at the long, dark form of Kay striding towards her but to her credit, she didn’t back down. “What?”

“My friend here,” Kay gestured behind him and Cassian jerked upright, trying to force the blood from his cheeks. “Would like to ask for your number.”

Slowly, agonizingly, Jyn raised an eyebrow and glanced at Cassian. “Would he?”

Cassian felt his mouth fall open and he struggled to find words. “Uh– I– yes.” He finally stood up and crossed the floor to meet her, nudging Kay out of the way. “Um– you’re– uh–”

Kay groaned again. “He finds you at least physically attractive and probably otherwise intriguing and would like to see you at a later date. I would prefer you give him a phone number– real or not– in the next forty-five seconds so we can return to our apartment and I can record Westworld.” 

Jyn barely looked at Kay, although Cassian could see a faint flush rising on her neck. She raised her chin and stared at him, like a challenge. “You going to say something for yourself?”

_Touché_. Cassian swallowed and nodded. “Uh, if it’s, um, okay with you– I mean, if you would like to as well, do you want to… get a drink with me? Sometime? I could, uh, text you or something. About, you know, a good time.” 

With her chin like that, Cassian had a good view of her face (her perfectly shaped, beautiful face), and he could see her fighting a smile. “Hold out your hand.”

“Uh– wha–” He did, and before he could process it she gripped it and produced a pen from her vest, scrawling ten digits across the back of his hand before he could appreciate how nice her fingers felt. 

“Text me.” She turned away almost as soon as she let go of her hand and left the bar with her friends. 

“That was pathetic,” Kay said. “You should talk to attractive women more often, if you are interested in improving your skills in such an area.”

Cassian didn’t respond to that, just contemplated the phone number as they walked back up to their apartment and hoped (foolishly, optimistically) that if this worked out, maybe he wouldn’t need to be good at talking to women.

It was crazy of course, and maybe he was still a little drunk, but as he got into bed, he couldn’t help but think that he had a really good feeling about this.

**Author's Note:**

> [Original Tumblr Post](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/post/174234545265/ok-but-i-really-want-rebelcaptain-and-30-pls)
> 
> This fic was inspired by a line from @melanoradrood's fic [Take that Risk, Step with Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14308461/chapters/33013383):  
>  _She’s exactly the sort of woman that you would be attracted to after a few shots of tequila, and me telling you to not pursue her._
> 
>    
> Thanks so much for reading/comments/kudos! I hope you enjoyed it :) 
> 
> You can also check out my tumblr for more unedited prompts and general rebelcaptain-y things :D  
> [cats-and-metersticks](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/)


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